582 THE BOOK OF THE DOG. 



separate them. This set of causes may be tabulated (giving only those interesting to us of the 

 canine world) as follows : (i) diseases of the heart, lungs, and nervous system ; (2) mental 

 emotions such as fright, intense anxiety, grief; (3), dyspepsia; (4) snake bites (rare in this 

 country) ; (5) epizootic jaundice. 



By far the largest number of cases of jaundice are those caused by obstruction, and we can 

 easily glean from the above remarks, that the treatment which would alleviate the jaundice of 

 obstruction might have quite a deleterious effect upon the jaundice of suppression, and vice versfi. 

 We may also see the reason why jaundice is considered such a sadly fatal disease by kennel-men, 

 and even by masters of hounds, and why a head huntsman or whip may be quite successful in 

 carrying out the cure of one case, and utterly fail from using the same remedies in another. 



We now stand face to face with the question : How are we to tell the difference between 

 the two forms ? We all know jaundice when we see it, and we all ought to know that, whatever 

 be the colour of the skin of the dog, the sclerotic coat of the eye is bound to be yellow. We all 

 know the symptoms of bile-poisoning, or jaundice, too: the loss of appetite, the confined bowels, the 

 clay-coloured mucus-covered stools, the frequent vomiting often present, the dark and scanty 

 urine, the dulness and apathy, with restlessness, of the animal, and his desire to lie in cool corners 

 and the yellow tinge of the mucous membrane as well as the skin, and the glassy eye, with many 

 other symptoms, too well known to all dog-keepers to need mention. 



Now, Dr. Harley has been the originator of a very simple test, whereby we can tell in a 

 few minutes whether the jaundice be that caused by obstruction or that caused by suppression. 



Take about a dessert-spoonful of the dog's urine (which you must use your own judgment 

 how to obtain ; place, for instance, a clean damp sponge at a spot where you think the animal will 

 stale) ; put the urine in a small clean test-tube ; add a little bit of loaf sugar, rather bigger than a 

 pea ; then add very gently, to prevent admixture about half a drachm of strong sulphuric acid. 

 If at the place where the two liquors come into contact you observe a purple or scarlet line, then 

 you have proof that all the bile acids are present in the blood that the case, in fact, is one of re- 

 absorption, or obstruction ; if on the contrary you have no such line formed, but simply browning 

 of the bit of sugar, then is the case one of suppression. 



Treatment. If the jaundice is caused by obstruction, we think it must clearly be our object to, 

 if possible, remove the cause, and at the same time to try to diminish the activity of the liver until 

 this be accomplished. If the dog seems to be suffering much pain, hot fomentations and large 

 poultices are to be applied to the region of the liver, after smearing the belly with belladonna 

 liniment. Give also from four to ten or twenty grains of chloral hydrate, and repeat the dose if 

 necessary, and afterwards, when the pain has somewhat abated, give either simply an aloes bolus to 

 open the bowels, or, better still, give an aloes bolus at night, and a draught in the morning, con- 

 taining sulphate of soda and sulphate of magnesia, from half a drachm to three drachms of each in 

 water. 



As emaciation very soon comes on from the want of the bile in the food, much good may often 

 be done, and valuable dogs saved, by the administration every morning of purified ox-bile ; dose, 

 from two grains to ten or fifteen, made into a pill, combined with from five to twenty grains of 

 Barbadoes aloes, especially if the obstruction is of long standing. 



Give light, nutritious, and easily-digested food, and the addition of a little nitre in the 

 animal's drinking water will do good. Afterwards give tonics iron and quinine best and plenty 

 of food and moderate exercise, \njaundice from suppression of bile, our treatment, of course, must 

 be different. It "must, however, be borne in mind that we must not weaken the digestion in any 

 way. Our sheet-anchors here are purgatives, in order to stimulate the secretion of the bile. We 



